International Security in the Multi-Polar World

Abstract

The article is an attempt to answer a question about the role of the Euro-
-Atlantic system in the multi-polar international order and whether it will
be able to guarantee peace and security. Will it be able to compete with the
growing power of China, India, Russia and other emerging super-powers?
The author advances a thesis that it is very difficult to answer the above
questions today because the world is becoming more and more unpredictable
and the dynamic of the occurring changes is unprecedented. Moreover, the
world is still involved in the financial and economic crisis and it is hard to say
when it is going to finish and what consequences it is going to have for the
United States, the European Union and other members of the contemporary
international relations.
The author shows that a new, multi-polar and multi-civilizational world
order is coming into existence today and the analysis of the years 1991–2010
proves that the Atlantic Alliance was not prepared for the collapse of the
bipolar system and the Soviet empire, which was believed to be the biggest
threat for international peace and security. Moreover, the author wonders
whether the renaissance of the Atlantic Alliance is possible and whether it
can play the same role in the 21st century as it used to play under the leadership
of the United States in the 20th century. He suggests that if the Atlantic
Alliance manages to break the present deadlock, it will be a co-author of the
new multi-polar international order. However, if it fails, the world will find
itself in a long period of chaos, conflicts and wars because for dozens of years
China or India will not be strong enough to create a new international peaceful
order without or with marginalized participation of the Atlantic Alliance.